Commatoze, converteddzlr is right! It's not too bad...after all, it is a &quot;dry cold&quot; ;D <br><br>Funny thing about the &quot;no unattended idling&quot; sign SierraPhil mentioned, especially in the prairies, that's pretty much a done deal in the mall parking lots (no plugs). My intro to this was in Moose Jaw (yup, that's its real name), Saskatchewan at -35C (-37F). Prairie folk are a pretty trusting lot and I pulled my Charger into a lot filled with idling, empty, unlocked cars. I figured when in Rome....I just used a second set of keys to lock the car. <br><br>Came out from shopping about 30 minutes later to see the Charger &quot;backed up&quot; about 15' into the row's laneway, fully blocking passage in that row of the lot. Found a note on the wiper...&quot;Sorry, tapped your bumper and your car slid on the ice. Would have moved you car back but you accidentally locked your keys in the car! Signed [name, full address, phone, etc...]&quot; <br><br>I unlocked the car and drove away just in time to pass the local law driving by looking at me suspiciously. Thereafter, I just left my car unlocked. ;D<br><br>As CD points out, North of the 49th we go Diesel#1 some time in the fall. It's a wider cut diesel (higher up the cracking tower, near Kero) that gels less than #2 but doesn't quite have as much oomph in it. MPG drops about 5-8% in the winter on #1. Re: Coldest I've seen was about -65C (-54F) in Alert, Nunavut, about 420 miles from the North Pole. Diesel gennies (Cummins and Cats) run fine but they're 24/7, never shut down except for required maintenance. Vehicles/aircraft are real cranky - I have seen the propane torch on the oil-pan thing for cold-soaked engines! It doesn't seem to bother the polar bears, though!

 

DNAT, I lived in Kingston for 5 years and hated that moisture .. stick to the sheets in the summer and have the chill bite through everything at minus 10 in the winter...I'lll take a nice dry minus 40 anytime over Kingstons -10!

 

Ha, that's pretty funny. I'm trying to picture that happening where I use to live in the Philadelphia area....Nope! Wouldn't happen, and if it did, your car wouldn't last 5 minutes . Well, I guess your weather fascinates me because I've never experienced it first hand. Also, I prefer the cold climate to warm. You can always put on another layer if necessary. How about driving in the snow? It it the sticky kind like I see here in MA when it's really cold? I mean, it doesn't pack down and get slippery like it does where I use to live in NJ.

 

OOOOOh ya! Love the sound of super cold snow when it squeaks under your tires and boots! ;D When it's that cold I find that I get better traction than at minus 5Cwith all the salt and gravel. (Salt might now work below minus 15C to minus 20C but after that you just don't need it!) The real downfall is black ice on the highway when you're cruising at 110 km/hr and suddenly wind up doing donuts on the Trans-Canada .... happened to me a number of years ago between Calgary and Banff)

 

Commatoze, like converteddzlr said, &quot;super&quot; cold is actually nicer than &quot;middle of the road&quot; cold but wet. When it's real cold, you get nice crunchy snow and can actually get pretty dry pavement that's been travelled on and the cars stay pretty clean. The worst is right around freezing to about 10 degrees below...salty, slippery, slushy goop at its &quot;car eating&quot; best. That's whay the worst winters I've ever driven have been around St. John's, Newfoundland...on the big rock. The joke is, no matter the season, if you don't like the weather, stick around for 10 minutes...it'll change. That's not much of an exaggeration. Last winter, St. John's had OVER 10' of SNOW! I kid you not. That and the high sea-side humidity makes for some piercing cold winds.<br><br>The nice thing about winters in the prairies was the sun. Maybe cold, but 9 days out of ten are sunny! Beats the west coast. Lived in BC for a while and had several friends in Washington and Oregon, too...winter rain/snow and a wet cold like nobody's business. *shiver* Even the Scot blood running deep in my veins wasn't too big on that stuff.<br><br>In the end, it's either cold and sunny in the prairies, cold and wet on the northern coasts, or still warm and hurricaney down South... Take your pick...you'll always think someone els has it better than you! <br><br>Cheers!

 

I'm sure UTAH could tell you about the dry snow they usually get in the mountains. Went skiing is So. Utah in 1985. the snow was so dry you couldn't make a snowball. The grooming machines actually sprayed water (?) on the snow to pack it some. Skiing on a powder run, ungroomed it was that dry fluff all the way to the ground some 6 ft below. Falling was no fun as it was so much work to get back up on skis.

 

All the outside pluggins you saw in Fairbanks where for tourists to plug their motor homes in when they come up to visit. For the guy who wanted to know if his heater was working.. if it is dark outside when you plug it in just unplug it real quick and you should see a small arc at the outlet. Wire size is 14/3 cord lenght 10ft if you add more devices, interior heater,blankets,oil and trans heater go to 12/3 make sure the cord is rated for cold weather.

 

Man, you guys are making Florida sound really good right now.<br><br>Remember, if it's too hot you can always drink another cold beer!!<br><br>jet